4-year-old requests birthday wedding with father as groom

Ben Macklin says his daughter's request for marriage represents his being an "example for the husband she's looking for down the road." (Source: Macklin family)

DECATUR, AL (WAFF) -

Ask most little girls what they want to do when they grow up, and they may say they want to "marry their daddy."

For soon-to-be 4-year-old Stella Macklin, it was a birthday request, according to her dad, Ben Macklin.

"We were driving home and we were talking to Stella about, 'What would you like to do for your birthday?'" We're thinking 'Frozen' theme, 'My Little Pony,'" Ben said. "She said, 'I want to have a wedding.'"

He says she was serious. "I said, 'Well, who are you going to marry?' She said, 'I'm going to marry you, silly!'"

It was not really a surprise to relatives, whom Stella has given "My Little Pony" -style nicknames. Her paternal grandmother, Dell Moss Macklin, is known as "Rarity" to the child.

"My son is a very good father," said Rarity - or Dell. "He's a good role model. My daughter-in-law is a very good mother. They brought her up right. They go to church."

"She has a great imagination and what she comes up with doesn't really surprise us all the time," said Pam/Twilight. "But what surprised me was that she was constant about talking about it. And she was really adamant that that's what she wanted - so, okay - that's what we're going to do."

What was a surprise for Ben and his wife, Nessa, was all the preparation she put into her planning, according to Ben.

"She wanted her grandfathers to give her away," Ben recalled. "She wanted her cousin to do the ceremony. She wanted her friends to stand on her side, she wanted the boys to stand on my side."

He says there were sweet vows of promise, a cake and more. "We asked my brother-in-law, her uncle, to play a song and let us dance to it."

All the while, Ben stands in a temporary position, knowing that some day there will be another man who captures her heart. And even now, 4-year-old Stella knows that.

"My daddy will give me away," she said.

Ben knows his role in raising his daughter. "The idea of me being the example for the father that she'll be looking for or the husband that she's looking for down the road, really kind of clicked in and really makes me want to set the bar as high as I can to be that male role model; that godly father that can be an example for her to select a husband in the future," he said.

And Stella does too. "Because I love my daddy."

So Stella wears her wedding ring on a chain around her neck, close to her heart. And she and her family have sweet memories of her standing on her daddy's feet as he leads her in a dance of love, promise and future in Bobby's Bama.